Eylül 2011 Cilt:19 No:3 Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi 1013-1028 THE FORMATION OF FEMINIST IDENTITY: FEMINISM IN THE 1930’S TURKEY AND BRITAIN Ayça ÜLKER ERKAN Celal Bayar Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı Bölümü Manisa, Türkiye. Abstract This article focuses on the improvement of Turkish women’s rights pursuant to reforms made by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, in constructing a modern Turkish nation, and discusses 1930’s women’s movements in Britain. Women’s suffrage in Turkey emerged as a part of a modernization process, during which Atatürk instituted equal rights before most Western countries had done so. He improved women’s status through his innovations thus building the most modern, democratic and secular Muslim state. Still, feminists of the 1980s question the Kemalist project of modernity in search of “liberation beyond emancipation”. Women’s rights in England emerged by women standing up for their rights, whereas those rights in Turkey emerged as a nationalistic policy by Atatürk. Keywords: Turkish feminism, Atatürk and his reforms, westernization, women’s emancipation, domesticity, women’s movement in Britain. FEMİNİST KİMLİĞİN OLUŞUMU: 1930’LAR TÜRKİYE VE İNGİLTERE’SİNDE KADIN HAKLARI Özet Bu makale, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti kurucusu olan Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ün modern bir Türk toplumunu oluşturma aşamasında yaptığı reformlardan biri olan Türk kadın haklarının elde edilmesi ve 1930’lar İngiltere’sinde kadın haklarının durumu konusunu tartışır. Türkiye’deki kadınların seçme hakkı, modernleşme sürecinin bir parçası olarak birçok Batılı ülkelerden daha önce kurumlaştırılmıştır. Atatürk, kadın haklarını en ileri modern, demokratik ve laik bir Müslüman devlet kurma amacı ile devrimleştirmiştir. Halen, “kurtuluşun ötesinde özgürlük” arayışı içinde olan 1980’lerin feministleri, ülkenin modernleşme aşaması olarak görülen Kemalist devrimlerini sorgular. İngiltere’deki kadın hakları, kendi haklarını savunan kadınlar tarafından ortaya çıkartılırken, Türkiye’deki aynı haklar Atatürk’ün ulusal politikası olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Türk feminizmi, Atatürk ve onun devrimleri, batılılaşma, kadınların özgürlüğü, aile yaşamı, İngiltere’deki kadın hakları. September 2011 Vol:19 No:3 Kastamonu Education Journal 1014 Ayça ÜLKER ERKAN ... 1. Introduction While the 1920s and 1930s was an important time for the establishment of wom- en’s rights in Turkey, a few developments in feminist issue were being observed in Britain during that era. Women in Britain struggled with the domestic ideology that most affected their lives in the 1930s. The cover of the Fiona Montgomery’s (2006) book titled Women’s Rights: Struggles and Feminism in Britain c. 1770-1970 inspired me to focus on the situation of British women and Turkish women of the same period. The striking cover included the British women who were holding many placards, one of them reading: “Are British women worth less than Turkish women?” This aroused a question and curiosity about what were the political and social conditions of the British women which made them hold such a sign? Were Atatürk’s revolutions on Turkish women’s right well known enough to be appreciated by women of the most modern countries of that era? Did it reinforce British women’s rights as well in the 1930s, when most of the laws were established on women’s right in Turkey? Move- ment towards equal rights in the 1930’s Britain was generated by British women’s po- litical action. This action inevitably appeared as a grass-root movement. On the other hand, women’s suffrage in Turkey emerged as a part of modernization process, which was a state-organized feminism supported by elite and governmental initiatives. I will discuss women’s movements in Britain and later in Turkey, because British feminism embraces Turkey to look critically at feminism in Turkey. The ideas behind feminism in both countries may seem the same; however the nature and function of its practice and goals differed. I examined how the women’s movements emerged, how this affected the lives of women and the development of these movements in both culture, especially considering the diversity in the nature of feminism, due to cultural background and social disparity. First, I examined the strug- gles of British women to break the boundaries of domesticity and their efforts to place themselves in both social and political arena. British women fought for their rights against patriarchal governmental laws, because the law did not accept British women as full citizens. Besides, they were depended on their husbands, or if not married on fathers, in legal arena. Then, I investigated the emergence, development, and transfor- mations of Turkish women’s right in the modernization project. I focused on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, his reforms to improve the sta- tus of Turkish women, and his marriage as a symbol of his feminist reforms. Turk- ish women defended Atatürk and his Westernization project to maintain and improve their rights. Women, as Yaprak Zihnioğlu (2003:56) emphasizes, from the first days of II. Meşrutiyet (II. Constitutional Monarchy) were willing to be treated as humans: have position, participate in social and political life, to work, to receive education, and to get rid of polygamy. There was a great awakening in Ottoman women by Tanzi- mat Fermanı (Administrative reforms in Ottoman Empire) in 1839. Improvements in Inheritance Law in 1847, and opening maiden teachers’ schools in 1870 prepared the way for a radical modernization project in the establishment of Turkish Republic. Eylül 2011 Cilt:19 No:3 Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi The Formation of Feminist Identity: Feminism in The 1930’s Turkey ... 1015 Atatürk and his wife Latife Hanım played a crucial role in establishing women’s rights in Turkey before most Western countries. As Bozdağ (2002) states, “Turkey is one of the first countries among the European states that gave women the right to elect and be elected” (126, 159). Furthermore, women in most European and other countries, namely Finland, Norway, Soviet Union, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Lat- via, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Mongolia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, New Zealand, and U.S.A. took their political rights; could vote and become representative in the Parliament (Çalışlar 2006: 196). Still, there was no legal improvement on the social and political lives of British women. British-Turkish relationship was at its peak especially during the First World War, because they were allied during the war. The visit of King Edward in 1936 affected the relation between the two countries in a positive way and the British Press was alert to the recent news in Turkey. Not only the British Press but also the world media was interested in the radical developments that took place in Turkey. Çalışlar (2006) emphasizes the rise of women under the name Latife Hanım that kept the world media busy between the years 1923-1930. Chicago Tribune, New York Times, The Times, Cumhuriyet Gazetesi, Hakimiyet-i Milliye, Toronto Daily Star, Washington Post, Sat- urday Evening Post, The Current Opinion (1924), The Literary Digest (1923), Mil- liyet Newspaper, Vakit, Ikdam, Gundem Newspapers, and as well as journals like The Nation (1923), Time, Resimli Ay Dergisi, Türk Yurdu Dergisi (1924) wrote about the recent developments of Turkish feminism. By then, British women as well as many other European women were aware of the recent developments and legitimisation of Turkish women’s rights. I assume that the news in the world media stating the development and legitimi- zation of women’s right in Turkey was the last straw for British women. England, where the “sun never set”, colonizer, the most civilized and developed country of the world in that era still did not have women’s legal and political rights. Besides, British political leaders and statesmen did not endeavour to legitimise women’s right until strong protests had been made by British suffragettes. According to Britain even in an “undeveloped” and “oriental” country like Turkey legalised women’s rights, which seemingly put women of an Islamic-traditional country ahead of the most civilized country. This surprised me so much that it made me think about the conditions of women in both countries. This study points out how the representation of Turkish conditions in respect of women was viewed and acted upon by the British feminists, because the idea of tak- ing both cases in this study derived from the reaction of 1930s British feminists. How could it be possible that a British subject would be in a worse situation than that of “heathen” Turkey? It is important to note that the image of Turkish women as “liber- ated” and “emancipated” used by British suffragettes needs to be looked from the other side. In fact, the Turkish emblem is connected to Orientalism placing Turks as “the other” in Western hegemony. September 2011 Vol:19 No:3 Kastamonu Education Journal 1016 Ayça ÜLKER ERKAN ... Women’s Movements in Britain in the 1930s Domesticity, as a matter of fact, emerged not only as a negative factor in women’s lives, but also as a significant force which contributed to the changes in the public and political status of women for centuries. Sociology Professor June Purvis (1995: 5) has noted that there was a lack of women’s history since history was largely writ- ten by men and consisted of men’s activities in war, politics, business, and administ- ration. Women’s history was mostly invisible, and, if represented, belittled in some way. Yet, this did not prevent women standing up for their rights, which led to mo- vement for women’s suffrage. There was an improvement in the situation of wo- men by feminist writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in the eighteenth century, later in 1929, when Virginia Woolf wro- te A Room of One’s Own. Many feminist writers contributed much in flaming the de- sire for women’s rights.